Discussion (26) ¬

Yeah, this attitude is where rape starts (Yeah, feel free to gripe at me for derailment, but this was really more to let you know that I can actually relate to the whole scenario of privilege & its danger without being black)

If you use a word in music, comedy routines, on TV and in movies, pretty soon everyone is going to be using that word. So we have to band together and agree that either everyone uses a word or nobody does. Otherwise there’s all this yelling about who can and can’t say it. Is one quarter black enough? What if you’re half black but pass for white, won’t that confuse people? On and on…

And hey, thanks for pretending this is a black-white thing only – it’s not like the rest of us have been subjected to this decade-long slapfight about who can and can’t use that word right? Once again black America acts like there are only two races out there because they have that privileged position in US discourse.

Three things: I love the strip! Finally, someone besides my friends and I said it! It is unfortunate that we are held to different standard than anyone else. Can we just have our say without some version of paternalism coming in to play… Yeah, no…

It is not like when we are fighting for Civil Rights we say, “Please just grant these rights just to us”. Oh, right, no, they were even granted to all people of color. That separation of people of color conversation is just a pretense for those who have no clue. We have never pretended that it was just about us. We just spoke for ourselves and work with whoever will…

Back to that awesome comic… Yeah, privilege is a dangerous drug! Our collective story shows that as do some of these comments!

Brilliant as usual Keith. Most white folks have no clue about racism. They hear the word and think they get it, but they don’t, which is why having a “conversation” about racism is a non-starter, it would be totally one-sided.

JorgeT, ‘decade long’? How old are you, 15? You need to educate yourself about history and the etymology of the word.

In a nutshell, the n-word has a legacy of hate and oppression and has a history of meaning to a certain segment of the population. White people like me have no such word, we’ve never been oppressed to that extent (aside from Jewish people who have their own set of epithets to deal with.) So sure, black people can use it however they want, it has a different meaning in that context. Sort of like if I call my best buddy ‘bitch’, which is not a word I’d use to address my mom. Words have context related to who is saying them, and to whom they are being said.

But it’s actually not about rights, it’s about decorum. You are perfectly within your rights to use the n-word in daily conversation. Just be sure you preface everything you say with ‘I’m not racist but …’, which is the signal that you’re using it as a term of endearment. Everyone will be cool with that, for sure.

I don’t get it. Is this a size contest? What is “empowering” about dissing your “friends” & family? Is it like calling someone dummy or asshole while smiling (you know I still love you-and I’m only joking). If you have NO RESPECT for your friends & family, why would anyone have any for you? Civility and empowerment begins at home, and with family – people who use disparaging and hateful words towards others are not smart, cool, in, or with it. . . they are closet bullies and racists. Think about that the next time you’re getting ready to use the word Nigger, whore, bitch to anyone of any gender, or any race.

Good idea, Keith. 25 white guys go into that redneck eatery in Charleston and sit together. Then, one black guy enter and complain of ‘feeling uncomfortable’! Bring a news crew along to record it, and everyone sit back and watch the fun!

I’m a Canadian, and white. I have never and would never use “nigger” to refer to a black person. Why? Um, simple human empathy. In my mind, any normal person of average emotional intelligence who knows or who is informed of the effect that “nigger” has coming out of the mouth of a white (or non-black) person would refrain from using that word just as a matter of common, I won’t say courtesy, but — empathy? sensitivity? desire to act like a civilized human being? Not using “nigger” in that way doesn’t bother me in the least because, like it or not, the race of the speaker lends different contexts, weights, and significance to words. Using it would make me a bully and a creep, so I don’t.

The tearful white guys you refer to try, I’m sure, to fall back on “equality” or “fairness” to defend themselves. But the world IS NOT EQUAL and the world is NOT FAIR and they should have to deal with just the teeniest little bit of it.

That being said, I never use the euphemism “n-word”. I think it’s stupid and childish and it allows people who are too cowardly to say “nigger” to dance around their racism (e.g. “But I never actually said “it”, I said ‘n-word’!”)

One last thing: my wife is of another race, and my child is mixed-race. My neighbour is black, with a mixed-race child as well, and we sometimes sit down and talk about the racism we see and experience here and how we can teach our children to cope. And we laugh and laugh when some dumb Canadian public figure talks about how un-racist Canada is. Yes, on a relative scale, Canada is better than a lot of places, but racism? Yeah, it’s here, too.

I meant to type decades-long, not decade-long. And idgaf what Key and Peele think, those racist assholes think it’s totally cool to clown on Gandhi by having a black men dress up as him and put on a ridiculous accent and dance around like a goofball.

And MattyJ, did you miss the part where I said I’m not white? Once again, all other races are ignored in favor of the enormous black-white slapfight. Y’all need to get over yourselves, you’re sharing this planet with a lot of other people and the rest of us are getting real sick of your shit. Bunch of white and black people in western governments are about to start bombing brown people, and you crazy assholes are in here fussing over some dumb word rules you have in your dumb little society. Way to go!

Keef, as usual, you hit the nail on the head. I had said to you once, “Why would I want to (use it)?” White guys who cry that they wanna use it, it makes them look like racists or like spoiled little brats or both.

But even this rule had a couple exceptions. I can think of two uses (over several decades!) where white guys really made it funny. Harry Shearer’s routine about F. Lee Bailey buying orange juice (in the days of the O.J. trial). And Blazing Saddles: Mel Brooks knew how bad the word was, but he knew he had to ring that bell. It smacked racism on the head each time. I say, leave that stuff to the professionals, not the crybabies.

About this business of one-half or one-quarter black and so on. In America, all you need is one little itty-bitty teeny-weeny drop of black DNA, and hey-presto, you are 100 percent black! Funny how that does not work for anyone else. Powerful stuff, black DNA! (At least in America.) You know what? If we can figure out how to turn that super-conversion/replicating quality into producing fuel, America would be able to power Starships. “Captain, this is Scott! If Uhura does not get doon to engineering und spit into the double-talk generator fuel tank, the warp drive will shut doon in three minutes!” “But Scotty, we’re passing through the Alabama sector!” “Otch, you’re right, captain, we wouldna want the engines to overload!”

Maybe in very private situations, select groups of racist white guys in America use the N-word, but having travelled all over North America in the last 30 years, I have not overheard ONE white guy (I’m white, BTW) use the N-word. We’re talking everyone from grocery store clerks to car washers to car repair guys to white collar types half-drunk at tradeshows… I also don’t KNOW a single white guy who would EVER say it out loud (when we refer to it, it’s the “N-word”, and it’s only used in context of discussion, never directed at a person). I hear black guys using it all the time (and man, I wish they didn’t) so I’m not deaf to the word… I honestly think that its use by white males is SERIOUSLY over-estimated in a big way. By way of example, one time I had to have business dealings with a super-racist guy and even HE said “we don’t like them black people and orientals around here”, he never used the N-word even though it was the “correct” context for it.

I have to say one thing, however: the strategy of use that’s going on is confusing. If it’s so bad to say, then black people should be discouraged from saying it, too. Maybe the whole point is so that when black people say it, it’s intended to make me shudder, maybe to remind me of a not-so-distant past when people were called it to their faces… but I doubt that the people who regularly use it intentionally say it for that effect, they’re just used to using it. It’s definitely a far cry from the way the homosexual community has adopted and depowered such words as “fag” and “gay”.

Mario, your claim is anecdote. I can tell you that I am white, I live in a place with much less overt racism, and, yes, I have heard “nigger” come out of the mouths of whites — and asians, btw, and most ironically, from East Indians!

re: Richard Pryor – actually, films are made with liability insurance companies, and he – even then – had problems with such things (drugs etc). Since such variables are avoided like the plague with investors, it’s not too much of a stretch. Still, we got his writing chops.

I also saw the Mel Brooks interview on the Richard Pryor documentary. That would mean that Brooks wrote the gags about the Black people, and that Pryor did the ones about the thick white guy, who gets blown up by the Candygram! Weird, huh? I also note, Keith, that in your LA POWER comic that you have a man wearing a “poofy shirt”. Is that considered anti-Gay? Just wondering…

Someone commented above that they miss the word ‘Honky’ which reminded me of a ‘BC’ comic I read one time. It was one with the Word, then its meaning.
“Honky Tonk”!
Definition of a white guy getting hit on top the head!
It cracked me up & I wish I could find that comic again & print it out.

I’d say that I can call my brother or sister an assh**e but you can’t. Same thing applies to the *n* word. Of course, Hispanics, Asians and yes, Whites, who grow up with African-Americans in a hip-hop atmosphere use the word freely, so…